Giovanni Paisiello
was trained in Naples and had early
successes as an opera composer there
and in north Italy. He served as court
composer to Catherine the Great in St
Petersburg from 1776 to 1784. There,
in 1782, he wrote Il barbiere de
Siviglia, his most admired comic
opera, pre-dating Rossini’s work by
some 34 years. Returning to Italy, Paisiello
spent most of his time in Naples, except
for a spell in Paris directing the music
for Napoleon’s chapel and, incidentally,
providing the music for the First Consul’s
coronation. Most of Paisiello’s operas
are comic, written in a lively, spirited
style, but some are sentimental comedies
(e.g. Nina,1789), warmer
and more colourful. Later in his life
he wrote more serious works.

The fulsome album notes,
by Paolo Isotta, place Paisiello as
"a great composer…He stands head
and shoulders above the other Italian
composers of his generation…".
Paisiello had an impressive gift for
melody and a highly individual style
and idiom that is akin to his contemporary
Haydn and even foreshadows Beethoven.

Isotta, who one must
assume is an informed Paisiello scholar,
is equally fulsome in his praise of
the artists featured in these performances
recorded in the Royal Palace of Caserta
seat of the Bourbon kings. This is located
between Naples and Rome and Paisiello’s
music was often performed there during
his lifetime. He speaks of the soloist,
Francesco Nicolosi, in the same breath
as Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, praising
his "luminosity of sound, his ability
to draw out song-like legato qualities
of a keyboard instrument." Praise
indeed and, I think, deserved. Nicolosi
does impress with his lyrical and exuberant
and polished playing. And Cappabianca’s
ensemble delivers poised and elegant
accompaniments with attack aplenty as
required.

Paisiello composed
eight piano concertos. The Piano Concerto
No. 2, showing more classical restraint
than the Fourth, looks northwards towards
Vienna. It begins with an extrovert,
forceful Allegro with staccato flute
figures echoed by horns. There are also
bouncy, assertive piano figures that
hardly draw breath for any legato lyricism.
A stately Largo again with chattering
unison flutes prominent in an extended
introduction precede the soloist, hesitant
and pensive yet delicate and graceful,
supported by pizzicato strings and singing
woodwinds. A most attractive movement.
The concluding merry Allegretto is
another elegant contrivance with fluttering
flutes and some material suggestive
of the hunt that must have flattered
Court audiences.

The Piano Concerto
No. 4 in D minor is more interesting.
It anticipates Beethoven and even, to
my ears, at some moments in the first
movement, Chopin. Isotta compares this
Concerto to Haydn’s Sturm and Drang
works. Scurrying along, the opening
Allegro is a sturdy creation
that, like other Italian compositions
of this period, has melodramatic, operatic
effects. The contrasting solemn Largo
middle movement, comparable to a young
Beethoven, sustains the melodrama in
melancholy lyricism, the texture lightening
as the music progresses, the soloist
tracing delicate patterns. Grace and
lightness, with a wry touch of humour,
return with the concluding Rondo.

The concert opens with
the lively, tuneful, five-minute Allegro
vivace of Paisiello’s Sinfonia
d’Opera which is reminiscent of
Haydn. Midway between the two concertos
is placed the six-minute, three-sectioned
Proserpine Overture. The sections
are: a furiously energetic Allegro
spiritoso, a stately, disdainful
Andante and a scampering, comic
Allegro. One of Paisiello’s greatest
operas, Proserpine was also commissioned
by Napoleon.

Energetic and lyrical
performances of two attractive late
18th century concertos. Recommended
to the adventurous music lover.

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